


A New Year's dilemma

by evakuality



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:41:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28546521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evakuality/pseuds/evakuality
Summary: Matteo and David have too many invitations for too many events at New Year.  How can they possibly choose which ones to attend?
Relationships: Matteo Florenzi/David Schreibner
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	A New Year's dilemma

**Author's Note:**

> This is again set at a nebulous New Year's Eve in which people are free to be together and have parties. You can decide for yourselves which year that might be!

“Here’s another one!” Matteo shouts, the frustration in his voice obvious even at this distance, and through the closed door.

“Another one what?” David calls back, thwarted a little by the water that gurgles into his mouth because he forgot for a moment that he’s washing his hair.

A disgruntled mutter gets closer to the bathroom door, and David can make out words like, “obtuse” and “idiot.” He grins, scrubbing the suds out of his hair. Matteo’s in one of his moods again, then, and is coming to tell David all about it. He loves these moments, when his boyfriend gets testy about something and comes to David to work through it.

Sure enough, the bathroom door pushes open and Matteo slips inside.

“What do you mean ‘another one what’?” Matteo huffs, muffled through the water now flowing over David’s ears, but still audible enough. “It’s obviously another invite to another damn New Year event. Look.” Shaking the water off his face, David pops his head around the shower curtain to see what Matteo is showing him. Matteo waves his phone making it impossible for David to see what’s on the screen, but he gets the message anyway. Matteo sighs, glaring at his phone again and sounding put-upon. “We already have so many.”

David casts his mind back over all the events he can remember being invited to. There  _ have _ been a lot, now that he thinks about it. 

“We don’t have to go to all of them,” he says soothingly. “They’re not going to mind.”

“Some of them will,” Matteo mutters mutinously. “They boys would never let us hear the end of it.” He waves his phone again, letting the screen show as David turns off the water and steps out of the shower to give him a wet kiss on his way past.

“And now Mama’s home and wants to see us,” Matteo continues. “And you know I can’t really ignore her.” He groans, throwing his head back. “We can’t do all of them!”

David can hear the building anxiety in Matteo, and winces. He knows Matteo always has found it hard to cope with huge crowds for long periods of time, and it’s obvious he’s getting overwhelmed just from the idea of all these gatherings in one night.

Dressed now, David pulls Matteo into him and wraps his arms around his shoulders. Matteo slumps against him, a sure sign of how much this is affecting him. David determines to make this as easy as possible for his boyfriend.

“Okay,” he says. “Let’s go through them and work out something manageable.”

He draws Matteo out of the bathroom after him and plonks him down on a small couch in the living room. He holds his arms out invitingly, waiting for Matteo to lean into him before pressing a kiss to his forehead and feeling the way his body settles into the touch.

“So,” he says once they’re arranged comfortably, “who do we have?”

Matteo groans, a slight tension back in his body, and David runs his fingers along his arm. 

“Your uni was first, so they should get first priority.”

“Nah,” David says, squeezing his shoulder before continuing his soft trail up Matteo’s arm. “They’re least important. That’s a form invite to everyone, so we can definitely ignore that one.”

Matteo smiles at that, small and fragile but genuine. “If you say so.”

“I do say so. Next one?”

“The boys.” Matteo sighs and glares at his phone as if it’s deliberately trying to piss him off. David can see the neat list Matteo has made, and he smiles. Making order out of the chaos is his way of trying to tame his anxieties.

“Okay, we like them,” David comments, pointing to their names on the list and making Matteo laugh. “We can keep them on the list for now. Delete that other one,” he adds, noticing that Matteo hasn’t removed it yet. “It’s really not important.”

Matteo does so, then points at the next name on his list. “Then Mia’s arranging something for everyone just before midnight. She’d be annoyed if we weren’t there.”

“Well that sounds like something we’d go to with the boys, sort of like an extension. So we can just count that all as one thing.”

Matteo’s smile this time is as irritated as it is fond, but that’s progress, David thinks. He’s willing to prioritise, and he’s genuinely engaged now rather than panicking. He waves the phone back at David.

“And then Hans has a full party planned for everyone he knows and the way he talked, I know he expects us to be there.”

“Could we go for a bit on our way to the boys? He’d understand that, surely?”

“I don’t know,” Matteo says, sounding miserable and already overwhelmed again. “There’s also Laura, and Mama…” he trails off, voice wobbling.

“It is a lot,” David agrees, understanding why Matteo’s feeling so fragile about this. Even he is finding it a lot. “But look at it like this - we’re absolutely not going to please everyone. So we should just do the ones we want to and let the others know.”

Matteo’s still staring glumly at his phone. “Mama,” he says, and David can tell this is the crux of the issue. He hadn’t been this worried until he got her invitation today.. “I never get to see her, so I should…”

“There’s no ‘should,’” David reminds him gently. “We can see people on other days. The question is what do you want to do for New Year?”

“Honestly?” Matteo looks at him with a wary hope in his eyes.

“Yeah, honestly.”

“I want to just hang with the boys doing something really low key,” He shrugs. “Drink a few beers, talk shit to each other.” He smiles softly. “But if I’m really completely honest, all I actually want to do is be with you. Just us together.” He sighs. “We never seem to have time for just us.”

And that’s the plain truth, David thinks as he pulls Matteo in a little closer. The year has been hectic and while they do try to carve out as much time together as they can, it’s always too fleeting and too frustratingly sporadic. There’s something really appealing in the knowledge that they  _ could _ do that. They could see in the new year together, just the two of them wrapped in each other’s arms, stealing some much-needed undisturbed hours away from other people. His breath catches in his throat at the thought.

“Let’s do that, then,” he says. “We can hang with the boys earlier that day, and see Laura and your Mama the day after. And we can just be together for the night.”

“The others will be annoyed,” Matteo says quietly. David can hear the wistful hope as Matteo contemplates doing none of the requested activities. He knows this is what he really wants to be doing.

“Let them be annoyed,” David says gently. “They’ll get over it, and this can just be about us.” He sighs and buries his nose in Matteo’s hair. “Besides, they’ll understand. They know we never get any time alone together.”

Matteo nods. “That’s true.”

He sounds happier as he snuggles in closer.

“Okay,” he says. “You win. We can stay here.”

David laughs at the echo of his own words. But just like that day, there’s good reason to want to create and protect their own little bubble from other people’s intrusions. Then, they wanted to learn each other, to shut themselves into a private bubble to ignore the world. Now it’s different but no less important. Now they need some time together, and what better time to claim for themselves than at the turning of the year? David can’t think of anything better than bringing in the new year wrapped in the arms of the person he loves, relearning what it means to be the two of them.


End file.
